Best job in the world

There have been worst periods of industrial strife, but the current social climate in France at the moment is not encouraging. What, with Dutch employers closing factories over the weekend and informing their employees by registered post on the Saturday, or Swedish furniture giants refusing to budge despite striking workers closing down distribution centres and hypermarkets alike, one would have thought that those with a little more comfortable ways of earning a living would be crossing the road and keeping quiet when faced with the hooligans of industrial action.

However, as usual in times of unrest, the air traffic controlers, have insisted on having their voices heard, with the result being that numerous flights have been cancelled and passengers stranded over the past few days… certain categories of airline employees themselves seeing fit to add the ‘passenger experience’.

Now, we have to accept that the level of stress has increased over the past few months. Small business owners wondering how on earth they are going to pay their employees, agricultural workers destroying crops as they lose less money doing so than if they were to sell at the market price, and only this weekend, oyster farmers having their livelihoods ruined by devastating sea floods which cost more than 50 lives.

Therefore, jumping on t he bandwagon, we have the air traffic gang who, under the pretence that they are suffering ‘unvearable stress’ and ‘crushing responsibilities’, decided that they were not going to work anymore (at least for the time being).

Now, to be fair, it has to be agreed that these people do have a responsibility which is maybe more important than that of you and I. However, it also must be said that, on average, they are earning almost five times the minimum wage… for working – now, hang onto this – just 99 days a year.

266 days of holiday!! Not taking account of leap years. Now, that certainly seems to me to be sufficient time to calm down after a stressful 1.9 day working week. And getting three times the average wage of a small business leader into the bargain. And there are also reports of informal arrangements between individuals – obviously not up to the 1.9 consecutive days – who cover for each other, often leading to security risks for passengers.

So what are the employers doing about it all? Hiding their heads in the sand, it seems.Oh, did I forget to mention that these are public sector workers, and that the boss is the government?

We’re a long, long way from a culture of ‘respect for people’ in this area.